Air Power, powers defence day

ia by mitia on 6/20/13

By Stephen Kapambwe –
SURELY, the Air Power Band is not a stranger in the musical entertainment industry for all age groups.
But the recent Zambia National Defense Forces Day was perhaps one show they wanted to get right, what with all the generals and Defense Minister Geoffrey Mwamba being in the audience.
In short, they were entertaining the ‘home crowd’of defense personnel drawn from the three defense wings. This included all their superiors, and they knew quiet well that they needed to make the generals, in particular,to look good in front of the Mr Mwamba who was representing
the appointing authority.
But they had to rise against the odds. Firstly,they were performing at a sports event as could be deduced by the venue which was the Olympic Youth Development Centre (OYDC).
Secondly, they had competition to beat in the name of their rivals, the Green Labels band from Zambia National Service (ZNS) and a number of traditional dance troupes sponsored by the three defense wings.
Nonetheless, theywere not to be cowed so easily. They came out with their ‘guns’ blazing andstore the show.
Their first performance came after the formalities of singing the national anthem and saying of a word of prayer which was followed by a march past and one or two traditional dances that fell short of enlisting a response from the audience.
But the moment their voices filled the arena, the crowd stood up andwaved scarfs branded in national colours as has become the custom these days.
The band was showered with applause and cheers of excitement as the band’s three-lady dancers took over the proceedings at the climax of the first song.
But alas! An electrical fault intervened. It silenced the amplifierand thus ended the song prematurely.
However, the crowd was to have the last laugh soon after the anomaly was corrected as the director of ceremonies recalled the group to attend to its unfinished ‘assignment’.
But the Green Labels band was not to be outdone. They had their own share of glory when they took advantage of breaks in the sports programme to perform some of their popular tracks during which they displayed their waist wriggling abilities.
Nevertheless, they fell short of the Air